


United in Body and Soul

by babywarg (morphaileffect)



Series: Ironstrange Bingo [7]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Marriage, Romance, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 10:16:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18519397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morphaileffect/pseuds/babywarg
Summary: [Ironstrange wedding fic] It was supposed to be a quiet, private, intimate ceremony. But somehow all of New York knew, and hosts of various dimensions were around to bear witness.





	United in Body and Soul

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [artwork by the very talented laisocasblog on Tumblr](https://laisocasblog.tumblr.com/post/183768487537/united-in-body-and-soul-very-good-morning), who also made the art that inspired my previous fics, [Hero](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18131534) and [Dream Guy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18025124)! Plus, I took the title of the fic from her Tumblr post, because I thought it was lovely :D
> 
> For the Ironstrange Bingo square "Love."
> 
> I totally made up the names of the dimensional rulers in this one.

If you asked Stephen Strange why he was getting married, he would answer "It's this whole magic...thing. Powerful interdimensional beings are always going to target the people I love...which, as you can probably tell, would complicate being in love with humans who have no ability to defend themselves spiritually. So, a ceremony to introduce the one person I love the most to the sovereigns of different dimensions would avoid some of the worst complications, because then an astral - you know what, it’s too much trouble to explain. Bottom line is: a wedding makes sure my loved one doesn't die."

But if you asked Tony Stark why he was getting married, he would shrug and nonchalantly say "Tax breaks."

Whatever the real reason was, their wedding became one of the most anticipated social events in New York.

Which was odd, because no one outside their intimate circle of friends was formally invited.

It was supposed to be a small, quiet, _private_ event.

Except word got out _somehow_ , and people simply decided to _treat_ it as a social affair. Social-climbing celebrities showed up at the doorstep of 177A Bleecker Street wearing their flashiest - and sometimes most absurd - attention-catching attire.

They weren’t allowed anywhere near the stairs leading up to the front door, but that didn’t stop them from peacocking it up and down the street.

And paparazzi, eager onlookers and fans milled around the doorstep (which was diligently kept secure by Happy and his crew) hoping for a shot of the soon-to-weds.

“Will you relax,” Tony told the man he was marrying, as he smoothed the folds of said man’s robe, both of them safely inside the building and well out of sight. “Happy and Wong are double-teaming to make sure nobody gets in. It’s going to go great.”

A low, dissatisfied rumble escaped Stephen’s throat. Under ordinary circumstances, it would be sexy. But today was a special day.

“I’m not worried about anyone getting in,” Stephen griped. “It’s just that the Masks of Minerveen have an aversion to crowds, and the noise outside might - “

“Hush, love.” Tony reached up to plant a kiss on his betrothed’s lips. “This is our time. If anyone makes a fuss on our wedding day, screw them.”

“Tony,” Stephen began in a serious tone, “this has to go as planned. If it doesn’t, I don’t know what they’ll do to you.”

Despite his intention to take it easy today, Tony was taken aback.

“You don’t know?” He blinked. “Didn’t you like...read it in a book somewhere or - ”

“No.” Stephen’s eyes narrowed at him. “Humans aren’t the only volatile and unpredictable sentient creatures in the multiverse, Stark. Get your head out of your ass.”

“Okay, geez.” Tony did his best not to be scared out of his calm. Sometimes, Stephen had a way of imagining worst-case scenarios. And imagining them to have been caused by Tony. And coldly referring to him as “Stark” while telling him about all of it.

“Our colors don’t even match,” Stephen grumbled.

“I said hush.” Tony took a hold of his groom’s shoulders. “Look - you said we had to match, and I did my best. Red tie, see?” He held up the tie he wore as proof. “And blue shirt, to match your blue robes. Although it would have been easier if _someone_ had cooperated and turned black...”

He sneaked a glare at the extremely red Cloak of Levitation, which seemed to gasp as if it had breath, then puff up indignantly.

“Please don’t pick a fight with the cloak today,” Stephen sighed. Annoyed, he rubbed the bridge of his nose with a thumb and forefinger. “Look, let’s just...get this over with.”

One of the most unromantic ways to go about getting married, Tony noted with some disappointment, but fine - he really couldn’t see himself spending the rest of his life with anyone else but this callous asshole, so romantic or not, it was something he was determined to see through.

 

***

 

Rhodey was there, of course. And Pepper. Peter. Wong. Christine. Those of the Avengers who could come.

Tony had wanted to invite more people. In fact, he wanted to invite all the onlookers outside. But up to the end, Stephen refused, saying they needed to make room.

Room for what, though, Tony wondered. The ceremony was about to start, and there was still so much empty space on the top floor of the New York Sanctum.

Well, he should have been ready for a fairly quiet ceremony. Stephen had promised him something fairly simple: _“We say our vows, we exchange rings, we kiss, and that’s it.”_

It was just - he was getting married to the love of his life. The paperwork had already been signed (neither one took the other’s family name, but that was never an issue). The whole world already knew.

Didn’t this event deserve a _little_ flash and fire?

But any resentment melted away as soon as Stephen took a step closer to the platform specially placed by the large stained glass window, and reached out a hand to him.

That was when Tony remembered this: he was fully committed to doing whatever weird shit Stephen wanted from this point on.

He took Stephen’s hand, and walked with his fiancé to the platform.

Stephen’s hands were lightly shaking as they held his own. That was the only indication Tony had that Stephen was anxious. When he wasn’t doing anything very strenuous, and if he was calm, the shaking should have been manageable.

“Oh, right, before we start,” Stephen began, “I need to just...”

Without explaining further, he touched Tony’s forehead with his forefinger.

There was a flash of light from his fingertip, making Tony close his eyes for a second.

And when he opened his eyes again, a barrage of new sights greeted them.

The top floor of the Sanctum was suddenly _packed_. Not just with people, but with creatures - of all shapes and sizes, colors and appendages.

Some were floating in the air. Some seemed to be melting into the floor and the walls.

Some had pure malice radiating from their bodies, as if they wanted to eat both him and Stephen whole.

_Whoa._

Well, he'd wanted flash and fire...

The unsurprised, un-alarmed look on the human attendees’ faces told him one thing: they couldn’t see the newcomers.

A vine-like being had seen it fit to wind itself completely around Peter’s body, and Peter didn’t seem to feel a thing.

Tony stared wide-eyed, unsure how to react.

“There, now you see what I see. For the next ten minutes, at least.” He bit his lip nervously. “You, uh...want to say yours first?”

Tony blinked. “Huh?” But he snapped back to attention right away. “Oh, yeah, sure.”

He cleared his throat.

“So, uh,” he began, addressing everyone gathered, “hi, folks. I hope you didn’t come in here expecting to hear me say something profound. Because I gotta tell ya, _did not_ prepare for this. At all.”

A pause. No reaction from the crowd. Well, one of the tentacled things coughed.

“It’s just...not my style. But...well, you know this. Most of you - well, the humans among you - were invited to this gathering because you already know a lot of things about me.”

Tony spotted Pepper frowning quizzically, wondering what the heck her friend was talking about now. Humans? There were NON-humans in the crowd?

“And one of them, perhaps the biggest one, right now...is that I am in head over heels for a certain...stupid, arrogant, know-it-all, slightly creepy,” - Tony took a deep breath before continuing - “brilliant, beautiful, selfless, magical man.”

He faced Stephen, gripped his hands more tightly.

“Stephen Vincent Strange, I don’t know - never really knew - if I ever had anything that you ever needed. But I can promise that I’ll be by your side. Through all the things you have to go up against - whether or not I can see them. I’ll take you on absolute faith. Always.”

As he slipped the ring on Stephen's finger, he kept his eyes on Stephen’s, so that he saw when the nervousness in them melted clear away, like ice turning into warm water.

“You are a gigantic jerk,” Stephen said softly, so only Tony could hear, “and I’m going off-script because of you.”

Stephen pulled himself up and raised his voice so the crowd could hear.

“Anthony Edward Stark...you’re perhaps the most acerbic, sarcastic, attention-starved person I’ve ever had the misfortune of meeting.” He took a deep breath. “But once your guard is down, you’re also the most generous, self-sacrificing, loving creature I’ve met, in all my travels through space and time. I keep telling you there’s no one like you in all the multiverse, and you keep treating it like a joke, but it’s true.”

He brushed one shaking thumb along Tony’s knuckles, sending a light shiver up Tony’s spine.

“You’ll always charge ahead to put the safety of others above your own, which, as you know, drives me crazy - but you also know that I love that about you. All I ask is that you let me be there to make sure you come home safely. While I live, I have your back.”

Then, as he slipped the ring onto Tony's finger, Stephen spoke a long string of words in a language Tony couldn’t understand.

So Tony just blinked through it.

The humans in the crowd glanced at each other, uncomprehending. Some shrugged.

Meanwhile, the non-humans in the crowd had a variety of reactions:

Some started shaking violently. Some fell perfectly still. Some roared, with some roars sounding like laughter, some like indignant howls. Some who had heads to nod with calmly nodded, the expressions on their...faces? twisting into something that resembled a smile.

Tony looked at Stephen, confused.

“Loosely translated from the most common language used in the multiverse,” Stephen told him, with a touch of mischief in his voice, “ ‘This is my beloved. If any of you motherfuckers harm a hair on his head, I will find you wherever you hide, tear you limb from limb, and grind what little remains of you into cosmic dust.’ “

Tony tried hard not to burst into laughter, and failed.

He fell laughing against Stephen’s chest, and learned that Stephen was laughing as well - just, more quietly. Perhaps so he wouldn’t piss off the interdimensional reps who were apparently invited.

“Jesus,” he said, as his own chuckle died down. “Please tell me I can kiss you now.”

Stephen grunted, and did something better than say the words he wanted to hear.

He slid a hand under Tony’s chin, tipped his face up.

And kissed him first.

Tony closed his eyes again. This time, blue light flooded the backs of his eyelids.

He opened them again only when Stephen softly broke their kiss.

That was when Tony saw that he was standing outside and _above_ his body, looking down at it.

His body and Stephen's stood motionless on the platform by the Sanctum's window.

Everyone else was frozen in mid-clap, mid-cheer, or mid-something else (he could never tell what tentacles were doing when they were just waving around in the air).

And he was surrounded by a warm, tingly, _strange_ feeling, as he came to grips with the fact that he was floating bodiless.

Yet Stephen was still holding him. Stephen was literally the only thing he felt.

“So,” he ventured, “we married yet?”

Stephen smiled.

“On paper and on the earthly plane, yes,” Stephen admitted. “But spiritually...not until after the honeymoon.”

 

 

***

 

They were already way out of the physical plane, and deep in the dark spaces between doorways that looked like stars, when Stephen explained that time didn’t pass in the astral world like it did in the physical world.

Technically, they could spend years on their “honeymoon” and only a few minutes would pass in the physical world.

Tony wasn’t sure how to feel about being fed this information at the last minute, but all reluctance fell away as soon as Stephen’s fingers - not shaking there, not in the least - touched the back of his neck, sending a shock of pleasure up from the base of his skull.

And when astral-Stephen started to remove his clothes, he felt every movement, as if his astral self was _extremely_ sensitive to everything that Stephen did.

(What was the point of wearing matching colors, he wondered, if they were going to spend most of the time naked and bodiless anyway?

(Really, Tony wasn’t complaining: just wondering.)

Tony wasn’t exactly sure what happened next - it defied reason and eloquence. He let Stephen take the reins, and not even Stephen’s unusually shy pronouncement of “I’ve never really done this before” did anything to keep Tony from feeling _everything_ as if he was in the hands of a master.

Strictly physical lovemaking had its charms. But holy hell, he couldn’t deny that what just happened was _intense_.

Stephen called it “soul-binding.” It was an important part of the ceremony they had started on Earth, he explained. It was like placing permanent astral marks on each other, so that most interdimensional beings could see either of them as two entities, instead of one.

A spiritual vow.

Tony couldn’t tell how long it lasted. But afterwards, he felt at peace. Complete. And not in a particular hurry to come back to Earth.

He just wanted to stay there, in the dark spaces, surrounded by stars, with the man he married.

He supposed it _was_ a honeymoon, in that respect: feeling nothing, seeing nothing, except for the most precious thing in the world to him. Nothing else mattered, not out there.

Stephen said he wanted to ask something. Tony, in the best of moods, let him ask without snarking at him for it.

“I need to know why you told all of New York we were getting married, when I specifically said we had to keep things low-key.”

Tony looked at his spouse. “You knew that was me?”

Stephen sighed. “I’m sorry, Tony. If you thought keeping secrets from me was hard before...you should know now that we’re soul-bound, it’s damn near impossible.”

A part of Tony, the part that loved his independence fiercely, rebelled against that...

But a bigger part of him thought it was nice, having someone he didn’t have to hide anything from, finally. And having someone who can’t hide anything from him. Trust that had no limits.

For example: he knew that he could babble nonsense right now, and Stephen would understand what he meant. He didn’t know _how_ he knew that, but it was a certainty.

Even if he lied, or gave the lamest excuse ever, Stephen would understand him.

But probably because of the soul-binding - or of just being in this state, where his frail human form, with its many nervous fits and palpitations, was not in the way - the words came easily to Tony.

“While we were planning out the wedding,” he began, “I was walking down the street to grab a quick snack before heading back into the office. I came across this kid...must have a little older than Peter. He was on the phone and crying. After he finished his call, I walked up to him and treated him to a hotdog. We got to talking.

“He didn’t want to tell me what was wrong, at first. But after a few bites of that killer hotdog, he finally told me: he had to break up with his boyfriend, because his boyfriend’s very traditional parents found out they were dating and were threatening to kick him out, disown him, the works.

“So, the kid thought it was best to initiate a breakup. He said he could see his boyfriend had a great future, and he’d be ruining it if he stayed with him. He just couldn’t see a better way out of it, a way that would ensure that both he and his boyfriend could be safe and happy and supported. They were both kids, who could barely take care of themselves, much less each other.

“That kid said: maybe there was a better time for them. But for now, it was for the best. You know what? That kid reminded me of you. Also Peter, but mainly, you. You’d do something so stupid, so painful, so selfless, because it was the best way in your head. And you’d be right. Like you always are.”

Stephen brought Tony’s hand up to his lips, planted a light kiss on the brand new ring on it.

"Oh Tony," he sighed, "you invited that kid to our wedding, didn't you."

“I invited that kid to our wedding," Tony sheepishly confirmed. "He was a no-show - probably saw all the people and cameras and got spooked. Guess it didn’t help that I also recruited the city’s top PR firm to help spread the word.”

Tony cleared his throat and continued, “My point is...there are so many people out there in the world who can’t have the love they want. Because it’s not the right time. Or because they’re too young, or too poor, or too high-profile, or too - anything else.

“For a long time, I was such a person. I thought I was too...rotten. For any kind of love. I was resigned to dying alone, although not to dying for nothing. Saving the world, yeah, that seemed like a good way to go...

“Then I met you. And I wanted the world to know. If you could just hang in there, love will come. And it will be the right person. The right time. All the stars will align. And through the heartache, through the hopelessness and pain, everything worth waiting for will arrive, and loneliness will be a distant memory.”

Tony looked into Stephen’s eyes, basked in the love he saw shining there.

“Besides,” Tony argued, “you wanted the multiverse to know. I just wanted the attention of New York. And all of Earth, by extension. I have that right, right? It's _my_ wedding too, you know.”

Stephen held his spouse more tightly.

“Yes, you do, my love,” he answered warmly. “You have every right."

"And once we're back in our bodies, we're stepping out of the Sanctum so we could get cool pictures taken, and have our names and faces featured on all the best gossip blogs, yes?"

"Of course we are," Stephen replied, chuckling. "Why else would I have insisted that we wear matching clothes?"


End file.
